WTO Summit Ends With No Farm Tariff Deal

Published 7:00 pm, Friday, February 14, 2003

Exporting giants eager for markets and nations intent on protecting farming remained far apart on tariffs and other issues as World Trade Organization ministers ended their meeting Sunday.

Delegates from 22 of the 145 WTO members disagreed over a proposal by Stuart Harbinson, chairman of the organization's farm negotiations, to reduce tariffs by an average of 60 percent in five years, cut agricultural subsidies and raise import quotas.

WTO members are trying to meet a March 31 deadline to agree on a framework for talks on agriculture _ one of the stickiest issues before the latest round of global trade negotiations that began in Doha, Qatar, in 2001.

The United States and the 18-nation Cairns Group, which favor an agricultural tariff cap at 25 percent in developed nations, said Harbinson's proposal did not go far enough.

The European Union, which wants to keep some of its farm subsidies and supports tariff reductions of 36 percent, criticized the report as "unbalanced."

Europe found an ally in host nation Japan, which levies a 490 percent tariff on foreign rice to protect its staple crop, to fend off pressure from the United States and the Cairns Group, which includes Canada and Australia.

Participants agreed to treat Harbinson's document as "a catalyst" and to submit their own suggested revisions, officials said. Harbinson will prepare another draft.

The ministers also could not agree how to make drugs to fight AIDS, malaria and other diseases affordable to poor nations. The deadline for an agreement on that issue passed in December.

The United States so far has refused to accept a compromise proposal, claiming countries could abuse the system to ignore patents on many other drugs.

The Tokyo meetings are preparations for a full WTO ministerial conference in Cancun, Mexico, in September.